Man admits conspiracy in Easton Café murder

A prisoner who bragged about his role in a slaying at a downtown Easton bar and threatened to kill a detective and a prosecutor will serve decades more behind bars for the crimes.

Franklin J. Barndt pleaded guilty Thursday in Northampton County Court to conspiracy to commit homicide and making terrorist threats in connection with the March 30, 2009, murder of Miguel Aponte Jr.

Barndt served as a lookout and getaway driver for the gunman and also disposed of the murder weapon, Assistant District Attorney Tatum Wilson said.

President Judge Stephen J. Baratta sentenced Barndt to 16 to 42 years in prison to be served after he completes the last three years of a drug sentence he is currently serving.

Barndt is the only person charged in the killing, which was intended as retaliation for Aponte's role in a 2006 shooting outside a Wilson strip club that wounded Jacob Holmes Jr., and claimed the life of another man.

Holmes has been publicly identified in court hearings and documents as Aponte's killer, but was never charged.

According to an account of the case prosecutors were prepared to make against Barndt:

Witnesses testified in a Northampton County grand jury investigation that Barndt was hanging around the Easton Café talking on his cellphone and staring at Aponte until about five minutes before the shooting.

Telephone records show Barndt made numerous calls to Holmes the evening Aponte died, the last of which came seconds after the shooting.

He and Holmes met at the Easton Café that night. Barndt told Holmes he had spotted Aponte sitting at the back of the bar.

Holmes told Barndt that he was going to kill Aponte, and ordered Barndt to go outside and check for witnesses. Barndt next led Holmes to the back door of the Easton Café, where Holmes knocked on the door.

When owner John Melham opened the door, Holmes walked in with his arm outstretched and fired shots at Aponte's back, Melham testified in a February preliminary hearing for Barndt.

After the shooting, Barndt drove Holmes to another Easton bar and took the black semi-automatic pistol he had used. Later that night, Barndt's girlfriend heard the two saying that "pay-back was a bitch," which she understood to be a reference to the 2006 shooting in which Holmes was wounded, according to prosecutors.

The girlfriend, Raquel Meyer, testified that she later saw Barndt dispose of the gun by throwing it into the Delaware River at Wy-Hit-Tuk Park.

In the years the that followed, Barndt boasted about the killing to numerous people. After he was charged, Barndt was recorded on prison telephone calls to his wife and others making threats to kill witnesses, Easton Police Lt. Matthew Gerould and Wilson, the prosecutor.